Cryptographically attested resources for hosting virtual machines

ABSTRACT

Approaches to enable the configuration of computing resources for executing virtual machines on behalf of users to be cryptographically attested to or verified. When a user requests a virtual machine to be provisioned, an operator of the virtualized computing environment can initiate a two phase launch of the virtual machine. In the first phase, the operator provisions the virtual machine on a host computing device and obtains cryptographic measurements of the software and/or hardware resources on the host computing device. The operator may then provide those cryptographic measurements to the user that requested the virtual machine. If the user approves the cryptographic measurements, the operator may proceed with the second phase and actually launch the virtual machine on the host. In some cases, operator may compare the cryptographic measurements to a list of approved measurements to determine whether the host computing device is acceptable for hosting the virtual machine.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of allowed U.S. application Ser. No.13/932,828, entitled “CRYPTOGRAPHICALLY ATTESTED RESOURCES FOR HOSTINGVIRTUAL MACHINES,” filed Jul. 1, 2013; of which the full disclosure ofthis application is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

As an increasing number of applications and services are being madeavailable over networks such as the Internet, an increasing number ofcontent, application, and/or service providers are turning totechnologies such as cloud computing. Cloud computing, in general, is anapproach to providing access to electronic resources through services,such as Web services, where the hardware and/or software used to supportthose services is dynamically scalable to meet the needs of the servicesat any given time. A user or customer typically will rent, lease, orotherwise pay for access to resources through the cloud, and thus doesnot have to purchase and maintain the hardware and/or software needed.

In this context, many cloud computing providers utilize virtualizationto allow multiple users to share the underlying hardware and/or softwareresources. Virtualization can allow computing servers, storage device orother resources to be partitioned into multiple isolated instances (i.e.virtual machines) that are associated with (e.g., owned by) a particularuser (e.g., customer). Each virtual machine conventionally includes itsown operating system that is capable of executing one or moreapplications on behalf of the user. Virtualization can thus enablevarious users to run their applications remotely, using on the resources(e.g., host servers, etc.) of the cloud computing provider or operator.However, providing a conventional virtual computing environment has anumber of limitations. For example, certain customers may beparticularly sensitive to security issues that may arise as a result ofexecuting virtual machines on remote resources. Because customers do nothave physical access to these resources, many customers would like toobtain some sort of cryptographic assurance that the resources have notbeen tampered with by malicious users or otherwise compromised.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure will bedescribed with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an electronic resource environment thatcan be used in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of obtaining a cryptographic measurementof the resources on a host computing device on which a virtual machineis to be provisioned, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of comparing the cryptographic measurementto a list of approved measurements that has been attested to by atrusted entity, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of utilizing one virtualization techniqueusing a hypervisor, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a resource center of a service providerthat provides the physical resources that can be used to enable avirtualized computing environment, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a virtual network of multiple virtualmachines that can be provided for a user in the virtualized computingenvironment, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a process for attesting computingresources that are configured to host a virtual machine, in accordancewith various embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a process for compiling a list ofapproved cryptographic measurements and providing the list to a trustedthird party, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 9 illustrates a logical arrangement of a set of general componentsof an example computing device that can be utilized in accordance withvarious embodiments; and

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of an environment for implementingaspects in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, various embodiments will be illustrated byway of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of theaccompanying drawings. References to various embodiments in thisdisclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment, and suchreferences mean at least one. While specific implementations and otherdetails are discussed, it is to be understood that this is done forillustrative purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art willrecognize that other components and configurations may be used withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the claimed subject matter.

Systems and methods in accordance with various embodiments of thepresent disclosure may overcome one or more of the foregoing or otherdeficiencies experienced in conventional approaches forcryptographically attesting computing resources. In particular, variousembodiments enable an operator of a virtualized multitenant computingenvironment to cryptographically attest to and/or verify theconfiguration of computing resources used to execute one or more virtualmachines on behalf of a user (e.g., customer, client, etc.). When theuser requests a virtual machine to be provisioned for the user, theoperator of the virtualized computing environment (e.g., cloud computingservice provider) can initiate a two phase launch of the virtualmachine. In the first phase, the operator may provision the virtualmachine on a host computing device and then obtain cryptographicmeasurements of the software and/or hardware resources on the hostcomputing device. The cryptographic measurements may be obtained using atrusted platform module (TPM) and be stored in the platformconfiguration registers (PCRs) of the TPM. The operator may then providethe cryptographic measurements to the user that requested the virtualmachine. If the user approves the cryptographic measurements, theoperator may proceed with the second phase and actually launch (i.e.,begin executing) the virtual machine on the host computing devices. Insome embodiments, instead of (or in addition to) providing thecryptographic measurements to the user, the operator may compare thecryptographic measurements to a known measurement or a list of approvedmeasurements (e.g., a “whitelist”) or other reference values todetermine whether the host computing device is acceptable for hostingthe virtual machine. The list of approved cryptographic measurements maybe provided by the user as part of the request to provision the virtualmachine or may be provided by a trusted entity (e.g., trusted thirdparty).

In accordance with an embodiment, the user submits a request for avirtual machine by using one or more application programming interfaces(APIs), such as a Web Services API provided by the operator of thevirtualized multitenant computing environment. In some embodiments, aspart of submitting the request, the user may specify a particularconfiguration of the host computing device or provide a list of approvedcryptographic measurements to be used when provisioning the virtualmachine. In response to receiving such a request from the user, theoperator (e.g., a service running on a server) can begin provisioningthe virtual machine for the user. In particular, provisioning thevirtual machine may include selecting a host computing device, unpackingthe machine image containing the configuration of the virtual machine,and performing any other necessary steps to provision the virtualmachine for the user. Once the virtual machine has been provisioned andis ready to be launched (i.e., executed) on the host computing device,the process may be paused and one or more cryptographic measurements ofthe various software and/or hardware resources on the host computingdevice can be obtained. For example, a trusted platform module (TPM) orother cryptographic module on the host computing device may be used tocreate a hash measurement of the software configuration of the hostcomputing device. Hash measurements can be created by reading values incertain memory locations and applying a hash function to those values togenerate the hash measurement. The memory locations may be associatedwith the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of the host computing device,a hypervisor (or virtual machine manager) on the host computing device,the configuration of the guest operating system of the virtual machine,the hardware configuration registers, the firmware on a peripheralcomponent interconnect (PCI) card and others. In one embodiment, thehash measurement is a secure hash algorithm 1 (SHA-1) measurement thatis stored in the PCRs of the TPM.

Once the cryptographic measurements have been obtained, they can be usedto determine whether the resources on the host computing device are inan acceptable state to launch the virtual machine. In one embodiment,the operator of the virtualized multitenant computing environment mayprovide the cryptographic measurements (e.g., SHA-1) to the user thatrequested the virtual machine and the user may approve or deny thecryptographic measurements prior to launching the virtual machine. Inanother embodiment, if the user has specified a particular configurationof the host computing device as part of the request, the operator maycompare the cryptographic measurement of the host to a known andapproved cryptographic measurement (e.g., a known SHA-1) thatcorresponds to the specified configuration. In another embodiment, ifthe user has provided a list of approved cryptographic measurements tothe operator (e.g., as part of the request for the virtual machine or ata different time), the operator may compare the cryptographicmeasurement to the list of approved measurements to determine whether toapprove launching the virtual machine or deny it. In some embodiments,the list of approved measurements may be attested to by a trusted thirdparty such as by publishing the list for access by multiple users (e.g.,on the Internet).

In various embodiments, if the operator determines that thecryptographic measurement of the configuration of the host computingdevice does not match any approved reference value, the operator canroll back or undo the process of provisioning the virtual machine on thehost computing device. Alternatively, the operator may not provide thevirtual machine to the user in other ways, such as by preventing thevirtual machine from joining a virtual network of the user.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an electronic resource environment 100that can be used in accordance with various embodiments. In thisexample, a computing device 102 for an end user is shown to be able tomake calls through at least one network 106 (e.g., the Internet, acellular network, a wireless network, a local area network (LAN), etc.)into a control plane 108 to perform a task such as to provision a datarepository or launch a virtual machine in a data plane 110. The user oran application 104, for example, can access the repository and/orvirtual machine directly through an interface of the data plane 110.While an end user computing device and application are used for purposesof explanation, it should be understood that any appropriate user,application, service, device, component, or resource can access theinterface(s) of the control plane and/or data plane as appropriate inthe various embodiments. Further, while the components are separatedinto control and data “planes,” it should be understood that this canrefer to an actual or virtual separation, logically or geographically,of at least some resources (e.g., hardware and/or software) used toprovide the respective functionality.

The control plane 108 in this example is essentially a virtual layer ofhardware and software components that handles control and managementactions, such as provisioning, instantiating, launching, scaling,replication, etc. The control plane in this embodiment includes a Webservices layer 112, or tier, which can include at least one Web server,for example, along with computer-executable software, applicationservers, or other such components. The Web services layer also caninclude a set of APIs 132 (or other such interfaces) for receiving Webservices calls or requests from across the at least one network 106.Each API can be provided to receive requests for at least one specificaction to be performed with respect to the data environment. Uponreceiving a request to one of the APIs, the Web services layer can parseor otherwise analyze the request to determine the steps or actionsneeded to act on or process the call. For example, a Web service callmight be received that includes a request to launch a virtual machine.In this example, the Web services layer can parse the request todetermine the type of virtual machine to be created, the type ofhardware requested (if any), or other such aspects. Information for therequest can be written to an administration (Admin) data store, or otherappropriate storage location or job queue, for subsequent processing.

A Web service layer in one embodiment includes a scalable set ofcustomer-facing servers that can provide the various control plane APIsand return the appropriate responses based on the API specifications.The Web service layer also can include at least one API service layerthat in one embodiment consists of stateless, replicated servers whichprocess the externally-facing customer APIs. The Web service layer canbe responsible for Web service front end features such as authenticatingcustomers based on credentials, authorizing the customer, throttlingcustomer requests to the API servers, validating user input, andmarshaling or unmarshaling requests and responses. The API layer alsocan be responsible for reading and writing configuration data to/fromthe administration data store, in response to the API calls. In manyembodiments, the Web services layer and/or API service layer will be theonly externally visible component, or the only component that is visibleto, and accessible by, customers of the control service. The servers ofthe Web services layer can be stateless and scaled horizontally as knownin the art. API servers, as well as the persistent data store, can bespread across multiple data centers in a region, for example, such thatthe servers are resilient to single data center failures. Functions orconfigurations of the APIs or other such components can be managed by atleast one system management component 114, or other such system orservice.

The control plane 108 in this embodiment includes at least one hostmonitoring component 116. The host monitoring component can comprise anyappropriate combination of hardware and/or software includinginstructions for monitoring aspects of the data plane. For example, thehost monitoring component can include a dedicated host machine, processdistributed across a number of machines, or a Web service, among othersuch options. When a virtual machine (VM) is created in the data plane,information for the VM can be written to a data store in the controlplane, such as a monitoring data store 120. It should be understood thatthe monitoring data store can be a separate data store, or can be aportion of another data store such as a distinct set of tables in anAdmin data store 122, or other appropriate repository. A host monitoringcomponent 116 can access the information in the monitoring data store todetermine active VMs, resource instances, or other such resources orcomponents 134 in the data plane 110. A host monitoring component alsocan perform other tasks, such as collecting log and/or event informationfrom multiple components of the control plane and/or data plane, such asthe Web service layer and various host managers 128. Using such eventinformation, the monitoring component can expose customer-visibleevents, for purposes such as implementing customer-facing APIs. Amonitoring component can constantly monitor the health of all therunning repositories and/or instances for the control plane, detect thefailure of any of these instances, and initiate the appropriate recoveryprocess(es).

Each virtual machine instance 134 in the data plane can include at leastone data store 126 and a host manager component 128 for the machineproviding access to the data store. A host manager in one embodiment isan application or software agent executing on an instance and/orapplication server, such as a Tomcat or Java application server,programmed to manage tasks such as software deployment and data storeoperations, as well as monitoring a state of the data store and/or therespective instance. A host manager in one embodiment listens on a portthat can only be reached from the internal system components, and is notavailable to customers or other outside entities. In some embodiments,the host manager cannot initiate any calls into the control plane layer.A host manager can be responsible for managing and/or performing taskssuch as setting up the instances for a new repository, including settingup logical volumes and file systems, installing database binaries andseeds, and starting or stopping the repository. A host manager canmonitor the health of the data store, as well as monitoring the datastore for error conditions such as I/O errors or data storage errors,and can restart the data store if necessary. A host manager can alsoperform and/or mange the installation of software patches and upgrades,as well as updates to configuration (e.g., specific virtual machineimages) or firmware, etc. A host manger also can collect relevantmetrics, such as may relate to CPU, memory, and I/O usage.

The host monitoring component 116 in the control plane 108 cancommunicate periodically with each host manager 128 for monitoredvirtual machine instances 134, such as by sending a specific request orby monitoring heartbeats from the host managers, to determine a statusof each host. In one embodiment, the monitoring component includes a setof event processors (or monitoring servers) configured to issue commandsto each host manager, such as to get the status of a particular hostand/or virtual machine instance. In at least some embodiments, adeployment monitor component 118 can also communicate with hosts,instances, and other such components to attempt to determine whenversions or configurations are deployed or updated, when communicationsare sent, and other such information. A deployment monitor can be partof, or separate from, the host monitor, as may both be provided as partof a monitoring service of the control plane.

As discussed, once a virtual machine instance is provisioned and a useris provided with a DNS address or other address or location, the usercan send requests “directly” to the data plane 110 through the networkusing a Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) or other such client todirectly interact with that instance 134. In one embodiment, the dataplane takes the form of (or at least includes or is part of) a computingcloud environment, or a set of Web services and resources that providesdata storage and access across a “cloud” or dynamic network of hardwareand/or software components. A DNS address is beneficial in such adynamic cloud environment, as instance or availability failures, forexample, can be masked by programmatically remapping a DNS address toany appropriate replacement instance for a use. A request received froma user 102 or application 104, for example, can be directed to a networkaddress translation (NAT) router 124, or other appropriate component,which can direct the request to the actual instance 134 or hostcorresponding to the DNS of the request. As discussed, such an approachallows for instances to be dynamically moved, updated, replicated, etc.,without requiring the user or application to change the DNS or otheraddress used to access the instance. As discussed, each instance 134 caninclude a host manager 128 and a data store 126, for example, and canhave at least one backup instance or copy in persistent storage 130.Using such an approach, once the instance has been configured throughthe control plane, a user, application, service, or component caninteract with the instance directly through requests to the data plane,without having to access the control plane 108. For example, the usercan directly issue SQL or other such commands relating to the data inthe instance through the DNS address. The user would only have to accessthe control plane if the user wants to perform a task such as expandingthe storage capacity of an instance. In at least one embodiment, thefunctionality of the control plane 108 can be offered as at least oneservice by a provider that may or may not be related to a provider ofthe data plane 110, but may simply be a third-party service that can beused to provision and manage virtual machine instances in the dataplane, and can also monitor and ensure availability of those instancesin a separate data plane 110.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example 200 of obtaining a cryptographicmeasurement of the resources on a host computing device on which avirtual machine is to be provisioned, in accordance with variousembodiments. Certain users, such as user 201, may be particularlysensitive to security issues when requesting virtual machines to beprovisioned in the multitenant environment (e.g., cloud computingenvironment). For example, it may be important to these users that theybe able to measure the resource stack running the virtual machine (i.e.,hypervisor, hardware, etc.), before the virtual machine is launched.This is because even completely valid virtual machines which have beenbooted from a non-tampered machine image but which are executing on acompromised host computing device may still be problematic, and maystill compromise the user's infrastructure.

For these types of users, the operator of the multitenant environmentcan provide cryptographic assurance that the BIOS, hypervisor 308, hostdomain 207, guest virtual machine 308, boot operating system (OS),hardware configuration registers, firmware on a peripheral componentinterconnect (PCI) card and/or other resources on the host computingdevice 204 are in a particular configuration. If this is combined with alist of approved configurations or other reference values, the user 301is able to verify that the resource infrastructure on the host computingdevice is uncompromised and acceptable for hosting the virtual machine.

In one embodiment, a two phase launch process can be implemented forprovisioning a virtual machine. In the first phase, the user 201requests the virtual machine using an API, such as Web Services API 202.The request may specify a particular configuration of the resources onthe host computing device, where the configuration has correspondingknown and approved measurement values associated therewith. In responseto the request, the operator (e.g., provisioning service 203 running ona server) can begin the process for provisioning the virtual machine byselecting a host computing device 204 onto which to place the virtualmachine, unpacking the machine image and the like. Once the virtualmachine is provisioned and ready to be launched, one or morecryptographic measurements can be obtained of the configuration of theresources on the host computing device 204. For example, a TPM 205 canbe used to generate hash measurements of the hypervisor 206, the hostdomain 207 and/or the configuration of the guest virtual machine 208.These cryptographic measurements can be provided to the user in responseto the user's request. If the user approves the cryptographicmeasurements, they may accept the launch of the virtual machine (e.g.,clicking “continue”) and the instance launch completes. Alternatively,the user may deny the measurements (e.g., click “abort”) and the processof provisioning the virtual machine is undone, or the virtual machine isotherwise not provided to the user.

In embodiments where the user has specified a particular configurationonto which their virtual machine should be hosted, the operator of themultitenant environment may retrieve a known and approved cryptographicmeasurement associated with the specified configuration. This approvedmeasurement may also be attested by a trusted third party to provide theuser assurance that the measurement is accurate. In these embodiments,rather than requiring the user to approve or deny the cryptographicmeasurement, the operator may retrieve the known/approved measurementand compare it to the cryptographic measurement of the host computingdevice. The information about the comparison may then be provided to theuser. Alternatively, the user may still be provided with the option ofapproving or denying the request, along with an indication of whetherthe obtained cryptographic measurement matched the known/approvedmeasurement.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example 300 of comparing the cryptographicmeasurement to a list of approved measurements that has been attested toby a trusted entity, in accordance with various embodiments. Aspreviously described with reference to FIG. 2, the user 301 may use API302 to submit a request for a virtual machine to be provisioned. Theprovisioning service 303 can select the host computing device 304 andprovision the virtual machine 308 on the host computing device. Beforelaunching the virtual machine, the process is suspended and acryptographic measurement is obtained of the resources (e.g., hardwareand/or software sources), such as by utilizing a TPM 305 on the hostcomputing device 304. For example, the TPM 305 may be used in obtaininga hash measurement 309 of the software stack hosting the virtual machine308, including but not limited to the hypervisor 306, and the hostdomain 307.

Once the cryptographic measurement 309 is obtained, it is provided to anetwork manager 312. The network manager 312 can retrieve a list ofapproved cryptographic measurements 315 and compare the cryptographicmeasurement 309 to the list of approved measurements 315. In someembodiments, the list of approved measurements 315 can be attested to bya trusted third party entity 311. For example, the operator of themultitenant environment may compile a list of all approved cryptographicmeasurements for each possible configuration of the host computingdevice. This list can be provided to the trusted third party 311 thatinspects each cryptographic measurement and attests to its accuracy.Alternatively, the trusted third party 311 may generate the list ofapproved measurements based on obtaining access to the resources of theoperator. The trusted party 311 may further publish this list ofapproved measurements 315 for access by various users, such as user 301.This can make it easier for the user 301 in the sense that the user doesnot need to determine which cryptographic measurements are acceptablefor launching their virtual machines and which are not. The user 301 cantrust the trusted party 311 on the assumption that it is an independentthird party which has verified the measurements and affirmed that theyare valid and accurate.

As previously mentioned, the virtual machine may be operating on a hostcomputing device that resides in a resource center of a service provideror other operator of the virtualized computing environment. On the hostcomputing device, a number of virtualization techniques can be used tosimultaneously operate a plurality of guest virtual machines or guestoperating systems. FIG. 4 illustrates an example 400 of utilizing onevirtualization technique using a hypervisor, in accordance with variousembodiments. The hardware 402 of the host computing device 401interfaces with a hypervisor 403 running directly on the hardware 402(e.g., a “bare metal” or native hypervisor). Examples of suchhypervisors include Xen, Hyper-V®, and the like. Hypervisors typicallyrun at a higher, more privileged processor state than any other softwareon the machine, and provide services such as memory management andprocessor scheduling for dependent layers and/or domains. The mostprivileged of such layers and/or domains resides in the service domainlayer, which may include a host domain 404 that may include anadministrative operating system for configuring the operation andfunctionality of the hypervisor 403, as well as that of domains of lowerprivilege, such as the domains of the guest virtual machines (405, 406,407) or other operating systems, which may be heterogeneous (e.g.,running different operating systems than each other). The host domain404 (e.g., DOM-0) may have direct access to the hardware resources 402of the host computing device 401 by way of the hypervisor 403, while theguest virtual machine domains (405, 406, 407) may not.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example 500 of a resource center of a serviceprovider that provides the physical resources that can be used to enablea virtualized computing environment, in accordance with variousembodiments. In the illustrated embodiment, a service provider (or otheroperator of the virtualized computing environment) can maintain one ormore resource centers 523 (e.g., data centers, server farms, etc.) thatstore the physical resources (e.g., host computing devices, etc.) of theservice provider. The resource centers may be located in differentgeographic locations to provide improved redundancy and failover, aswell as more localized access to resources. The physical resources canbe used to host a number of virtual machines or virtual servers that canbe provided to users 501 over a network 502, such as the Internet. Forexample, when a user wants to execute an application using the physicalresources of the service provider, he or she may request the serviceprovider to provision a virtual machine for the user, which will be usedto deploy and execute the application. As demand for the user'sapplication grows, the user can request that more virtual machines beprovisioned to balance the load, request creation of one or more virtualnetworks and the like.

In the illustrated example, the resource center 523 of the serviceprovider may include one or more racks 521, 522 of host computingdevices (506, 507, 508, 509, 510) wherein each host computing device ona particular rack is connected to a single top-of-rack (TOR) switch(504, 505). These TOR switches can be further connected to one or moreother switches (524, 525) which enable the host computing devices toconnect to the network. As used throughout this disclosure, a networkcan be any wired or wireless network of devices that are capable ofcommunicating with each other, including but not limited to the Internetor other Wide Area Networks (WANs), cellular networks, Local AreaNetworks (LANs), Storage Area Networks

(SANs), Intranets, Extranets, and the like. The resource centers caninclude any physical or logical grouping of resources, such as a datacenter, a server farm, content delivery network (CDN) point-of-presence(POP) and the like.

In accordance with an embodiment, each host computing device can hostone or more virtual machine instances (513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 518,519) that have been provisioned for the customers of the serviceprovider to execute the various applications and services on behalf ofthose customers. Each virtual machine can be provisioned with its ownoperating system (OS) including a kernel, drivers, process managementand the like.

When a customer wishes to obtain a virtual machine instance, thecustomer can first submit a request to the service provider, indicatingthe type of VM they would like to use. The service provider (or otheroperator) may carry out the processes to provision the virtual machineinstance which will be hosted on the physical resources (e.g., hostcomputing devices) of the service provider. When requesting the VM, theuser may specify the configuration information to be used with the VM,as previously described.

As previously described, when the virtual machine is provisioned for theuser, it may be associated with a virtual network provisioned for thatuser. FIG. 6 illustrates an example 600 of a virtual network of multiplevirtual machines that can be provided for a user in the virtualizedcomputing environment, in accordance with various embodiments. Aspreviously mentioned, the service provider (or other operator of thevirtualized computing environment) can provide a resource center thatmaintains the physical resources (e.g., host computing devices, etc.) tohost the various virtual machines and virtual networks, such as virtualnetwork 651, for one or more customers of the service provider. In someembodiments, the service provider may provide a network service that canbe used to create and configure the virtual networks by variouscustomers of the service provider.

In the illustrated example, the virtual network 651 is a private networkextension to a remote private computer network of a customer. Thevirtual network 651 includes various virtual machines that are locatedat a first geographic location 1 660 (e.g., in a first data centerlocated in the geographic location 1). The virtual machines can beconfigured into logical groups 657, 658, and 659 (e.g., to correspond todifferent subnets and associated networking devices not shown). In thisexample, a single conceptual virtual router 655 is shown in geographiclocation 1 660 to control communications between those virtual machinesand other computing systems, so as to illustrate different types ofcommunications that may occur, although in alternative embodiments,there may be multiple or no configured networking devices at geographiclocation 1. The virtual network may be implemented in geographiclocation 1 660 in various manners, such as via multiple physicalinterconnected routers or other networking devices, by using anunderlying substrate network and associated modules that controlcommunications over the underlying network, or the like. In thisexample, the virtual router 655 operates in accordance with theconfigured information for the virtual network 651, including configurednetwork topology information, such as may be configured by the customerusing the network service provided by the service provider.

In this example, the virtual network 651 is provided for examplecustomer 1, and is a network extension to a remote computer network ofcustomer 1. Customer 1's remote computer network includes multiplecomputing systems (not shown) at a first remote location, such asPrivate Network Site A 652, and the virtual router 655 is configured tocommunicate with those multiple computing systems via a virtualcommunication link 658. For example, the virtual network may include oneor more configured virtual private network (VPN) connections to themultiple computing systems at Site A 652, and the communication link 658may correspond to one or more such VPN connections. In addition, theremote computer network of customer 1 may optionally include computingsystems at one or more other locations, such as the illustrated optionalPrivate Network Site B 653, and if so, the virtual router 655 mayfurther be configured to communicate with those other computing systemsat the other locations, such as via an optional virtual communicationlink 658 to Site B 653 (e.g., via one or more other configured VPNconnections directly to Site B). When multiple VPN connections or othersecure connections are used to remote computing systems of a remotecomputer network, each connection may correspond to a subset of theremote computing systems (e.g., by being associated with a subset of thenetwork addresses of the remote computer network that correspond tothose computing systems) so as to cause communications to be routed tothe appropriate connection. In other embodiments, multiple VPNconnections or other secure connections may be used to remote computingsystems at one or more locations, but may each support communications toany of the remote computing systems, such as if the multiple connectionsare redundant alternatives (e.g., used for load balancing). Further, insome embodiments, a client's remote computer network may includemultiple computing systems at multiple sites, but only a single VPNconnection or other secure connection to the remote computing systemsmay be used, with the remote computer network being responsible forrouting the communications to the appropriate site and computing system.

In addition, the virtual network 651 may be configured to allow all,some or no communications between the virtual machines of the virtualnetwork and other external computing systems that are generallyaccessible on the Internet 654 or other public networks. If at leastsome such external communications are allowed, the virtual router 655may further be configured to communicate with those external multiplecomputing systems via an optional virtual communication link 659.

In the illustrated embodiment, in addition to the virtual machines (656,657, 658) at geographic location 1 660, the virtual network may furtherinclude virtual machines 665 that are located at a second geographiclocation 2 661 (e.g., at a distinct second resource center at thegeographic location 2). Accordingly, the virtual router 655 may beconfigured to include a virtual communication link 662 to the portion ofthe virtual network at the geographic location 2 661. In this example,the portion of the virtual network at the geographic location 2 661similarly is illustrated with a conceptual virtual router 664 to managecommunications to and from the virtual machines 665, including tocommunicate with the portion of the virtual network at the geographiclocation 1 660 via a virtual communication link 663. Such communicationsbetween virtual machines of the virtual network at different geographiclocations may be handled in various manners in various embodiments, suchas by sending the communications over the Internet or other publicnetworks (e.g., as part of a secure tunnel using encryption)_by sendingthe communications in a private secure manner (e.g., via a dedicatedlease line between the geographic locations), etc. In addition, whilenot illustrated here, the portion of the virtual network at thegeographic location 2 may similarly include other virtual communicationlinks, such as to remote client private networks (e.g., via one or moreVPN connections distinct from any VPN connections to the geographiclocation 1), to the Internet, etc.

As previously described, when a virtual machine is provisioned for auser (e.g., customer 1), it may be added to the virtual network of thatuser. In some embodiments, the user may provide a list of approvedcryptographic measurements and specify that all virtual machinesbelonging to their virtual network need to match at least one of thosecryptographic measurements. In these embodiments, when the user requestsadditional virtual machines to be provisioned for their virtual network,the operator may select a host computing device and generate thecryptographic measurements for the resources of that host and thencompare the cryptographic measurements to the list of approvedmeasurements initially provided by the user. If the host computingdevices does not match one of the approved measurements, the virtualmachine is not added to the virtual network of the user.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a process 700 for attesting computingresources that are configured to host a virtual machine, in accordancewith various embodiments. Although this figure may depict functionaloperations in a particular sequence, the processes are not necessarilylimited to the particular order or operations illustrated. One skilledin the art will appreciate that the various operations portrayed in thisor other figures can be changed, rearranged, performed in parallel oradapted in various ways. Furthermore, it is to be understood thatcertain operations or sequences of operations can be added to or omittedfrom the process, without departing from the scope of the variousembodiments. In addition, the process illustrations contained herein areintended to demonstrate an idea of the process flow to one of ordinaryskill in the art, rather than specifying the actual sequences of codeexecution, which may be implemented as different flows or sequences,optimized for performance, or otherwise modified in various ways.

In operation 701, a request to provision a virtual machine for a user isreceived. The request may be submitted by a user by accessing one ormore APIs, as previously described. In some embodiments, as part ofsubmitting the request, the user may specify a particular configurationthat the host computing device will need to comply with in order to hostthe user's virtual machine. In response to receiving the request, theoperator of the multitenant environment may select a host computingdevice for hosting the virtual machine, as shown in operation 702. Invarious embodiments, the selected host computing device includessoftware and hardware resources for executing the virtual machine. Forexample, the resources may include a hypervisor and host domain (or avirtual machine monitor) for hosting multiple virtual machines on thedevice.

In operation 703, the operator provisions the virtual machine on theselected host computing device. Once the virtual machine has beenprovisioned and is ready to be launched, the operator generates acryptographic measurement (e.g., hash measurement) of the softwareand/or hardware resource configuration on the host computing device, asshown in operation 704. In some embodiments, a TPM embedded in the hostcomputing device may be utilized in generating the cryptographicmeasurements.

In operation 705, the operator retrieves a list of approvedcryptographic measurements. In various embodiments, this list ofapproved hash measurements may be provided by the user or compiled bythe operator and attested to by a trusted third party. In yet otherembodiments, the trusted third party may publish the list of approvedcryptographic measurements, such as by making it accessible to usersover the internet. Once the list if obtained, the hash measurementgenerated on the selected host device can be compared to the list ofapproved hash measurements to determine whether the resources on theselected host computing device are acceptable for hosting the virtualmachine. If the cryptographic measurement matches one of themeasurements on the list of approved measurements, the virtual machineis launched on the host computing device, as shown in operation 706. Inembodiments where the user has specified a particular configuration ofthe host computing device as part of the original request, there may notneed to be any list of approved measurements. Rather, the cryptographicmeasurement obtained by the TPM may simply be compared with a known andapproved measurement that corresponds to the particular configurationspecified by the user in order to determine whether the configuration ofthe host is acceptable. In some embodiments, information about whetherthe measurements match can be provided back to the user, such as byenabling a user to access an API that provides this information.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a process 800 for compiling a list ofapproved cryptographic measurements and providing the list to a trustedthird party, in accordance with various embodiments. In operation 801,the operator of the multitenant environment compiles a list of approvedcryptographic measurements and the software and/or hardwareconfigurations corresponding to those measurements. In operation 802,the list of approved measurements is provided to a trusted third party.The trusted third party may analyze the approved measurements and attestto their accuracy. Once the trusted party has attested the accuracy ofthe list of measurements, various users may rely on the measurements inthe list when requesting their virtual machines to be launched, aspreviously described.

In operation 803, the operator of the multitenant environment may, fromtime to time, update or patch the various resources (e.g., hypervisors,etc.) used to host the virtual machines. For example, the serviceprovider or operator of the multitenant environment may introduce newinfrastructure and new components (e.g., new hardware with a differentBIOS, etc.) to the multitenant environment. In many cases, such updates,patches or new components may require new cryptographic measurements tobe generated for those resources. In operation 804, the operatorgenerates the new cryptographic measurements corresponding to theupdated resources and in operation 805, the operator provides thosemeasurements to the trusted third party. The trusted third party maythen attest the new cryptographic measurements and the users maycontinue relying on them.

FIG. 9 illustrates a logical arrangement of a set of general componentsof an example computing device 900. In this example, the device includesa processor 902 for executing instructions that can be stored in amemory device or element 904. As would be apparent to one of ordinaryskill in the art, the device can include many types of memory, datastorage, or non-transitory computer-readable storage media, such as afirst data storage for program instructions for execution by theprocessor 902, a separate storage for images or data, a removable memoryfor sharing information with other devices, etc. The device typicallywill include some type of display element 906, such as a touch screen orliquid crystal display (LCD), although devices such as portable mediaplayers might convey information via other means, such as through audiospeakers. As discussed, the device in many embodiments will include atleast one input element 908 able to receive conventional input from auser. This conventional input can include, for example, a push button,touch pad, touch screen, wheel, joystick, keyboard, mouse, keypad, orany other such device or element whereby a user can input a command tothe device. In some embodiments, however, such a device might notinclude any buttons at all, and might be controlled only through acombination of visual and audio commands, such that a user can controlthe device without having to be in contact with the device. In someembodiments, the computing device 900 of FIG. 9 can include one or morenetwork interface elements 908 for communicating over various networks,such as a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RF, wired, or wireless communicationsystems. The device in many embodiments can communicate with a network,such as the Internet, and may be able to communicate with other suchdevices.

As discussed, different approaches can be implemented in variousenvironments in accordance with the described embodiments. For example,FIG. 10 illustrates an example of an environment 1000 for implementingaspects in accordance with various embodiments. As will be appreciated,although a Web-based environment is used for purposes of explanation,different environments may be used, as appropriate, to implement variousembodiments. The system includes an electronic client device 1002, whichcan include any appropriate device operable to send and receiverequests, messages or information over an appropriate network 1004 andconvey information back to a user of the device. Examples of such clientdevices include personal computers, cell phones, handheld messagingdevices, laptop computers, set-top boxes, personal data assistants,electronic book readers and the like. The network can include anyappropriate network, including an intranet, the Internet, a cellularnetwork, a local area network or any other such network or combinationthereof. Components used for such a system can depend at least in partupon the type of network and/or environment selected. Protocols andcomponents for communicating via such a network are well known and willnot be discussed herein in detail. Communication over the network can beenabled via wired or wireless connections and combinations thereof. Inthis example, the network includes the Internet, as the environmentincludes a Web server 1006 for receiving requests and serving content inresponse thereto, although for other networks an alternative deviceserving a similar purpose could be used, as would be apparent to one ofordinary skill in the art.

The illustrative environment includes at least one application server1008 and a data store 1010. It should be understood that there can beseveral application servers, layers or other elements, processes orcomponents, which may be chained or otherwise configured, which caninteract to perform tasks such as obtaining data from an appropriatedata store. As used herein the term “data store” refers to any device orcombination of devices capable of storing, accessing and retrievingdata, which may include any combination and number of data servers,databases, data storage devices and data storage media, in any standard,distributed or clustered environment. The application server can includeany appropriate hardware and software for integrating with the datastore as needed to execute aspects of one or more applications for theclient device and handling a majority of the data access and businesslogic for an application.

The application server provides access control services in cooperationwith the data store and is able to generate content such as text,graphics, audio and/or video to be transferred to the user, which may beserved to the user by the Web server in the form of HTML, XML or anotherappropriate structured language in this example. The handling of allrequests and responses, as well as the delivery of content between theclient device 1002 and the application server 1008, can be handled bythe Web server 1006. It should be understood that the Web andapplication servers are not required and are merely example components,as structured code discussed herein can be executed on any appropriatedevice or host machine as discussed elsewhere herein.

The data store 1010 can include several separate data tables, databasesor other data storage mechanisms and media for storing data relating toa particular aspect. For example, the data store illustrated includesmechanisms for storing production data 1012 and user information 716,which can be used to serve content for the production side. The datastore also is shown to include a mechanism for storing log or sessiondata 1014. It should be understood that there can be many other aspectsthat may need to be stored in the data store, such as page imageinformation and access rights information, which can be stored in any ofthe above listed mechanisms as appropriate or in additional mechanismsin the data store 1010. The data store 1010 is operable, through logicassociated therewith, to receive instructions from the applicationserver 1008 and obtain, update or otherwise process data in responsethereto. In one example, a user might submit a search request for acertain type of item. In this case, the data store might access the userinformation to verify the identity of the user and can access thecatalog detail information to obtain information about items of thattype. The information can then be returned to the user, such as in aresults listing on a Web page that the user is able to view via abrowser on the user device 1002. Information for a particular item ofinterest can be viewed in a dedicated page or window of the browser.

Each server typically will include an operating system that providesexecutable program instructions for the general administration andoperation of that server and typically will include computer-readablemedium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of theserver, allow the server to perform its intended functions. Suitableimplementations for the operating system and general functionality ofthe servers are known or commercially available and are readilyimplemented by persons having ordinary skill in the art, particularly inlight of the disclosure herein.

The environment in one embodiment is a distributed computing environmentutilizing several computer systems and components that areinterconnected via communication links, using one or more computernetworks or direct connections. However, it will be appreciated by thoseof ordinary skill in the art that such a system could operate equallywell in a system having fewer or a greater number of components than areillustrated in FIG. 10. Thus, the depiction of the system 1000 in FIG.10 should be taken as being illustrative in nature and not limiting tothe scope of the disclosure.

Various embodiments discussed or suggested herein can be implemented ina wide variety of operating environments, which in some cases caninclude one or more user computers, computing devices, or processingdevices which can be used to operate any of a number of applications.User or client devices can include any of a number of general purposepersonal computers, such as desktop or laptop computers running astandard operating system, as well as cellular, wireless, and handhelddevices running mobile software and capable of supporting a number ofnetworking and messaging protocols. Such a system also can include anumber of workstations running any of a variety ofcommercially-available operating systems and other known applicationsfor purposes such as development and database management. These devicesalso can include other electronic devices, such as dummy terminals,thin-clients, gaming systems, and other devices capable of communicatingvia a network.

Most embodiments utilize at least one network that would be familiar tothose skilled in the art for supporting communications using any of avariety of commercially-available protocols, such as TCP/IP, FTP, UPnP,NFS and CIFS. The network can be, for example, a local area network, awide-area network, a virtual private network, the Internet, an intranet,an extranet, a public switched telephone network, an infrared network, awireless network, and any combination thereof

In embodiments utilizing a Web server, the Web server can run any of avariety of server or mid-tier applications, including HTTP servers, FTPservers, CGI servers, data servers, Java servers, and businessapplication servers. The server(s) also may be capable of executingprograms or scripts in response requests from user devices, such as byexecuting one or more Web applications that may be implemented as one ormore scripts or programs written in any programming language, such asJava®, C, C# or C++, or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python, orTCL, as well as combinations thereof. The server(s) may also includedatabase servers, including without limitation those commerciallyavailable from Oracle®, Microsoft®, Sybase®, and IBM®.

The environment can include a variety of data stores and other memoryand storage media as discussed above. These can reside in a variety oflocations, such as on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) oneor more of the computers or remote from any or all of the computersacross the network. In a particular set of embodiments, the informationmay reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilledin the art. Similarly, any necessary files for performing the functionsattributed to the computers, servers, or other network devices may bestored locally and/or remotely, as appropriate. Where a system includescomputerized devices, each such device can include hardware elementsthat may be electrically coupled via a bus, the elements including, forexample, at least one central processing unit (CPU), at least one inputdevice (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, controller, touch screen, or keypad),and at least one output device (e.g., a display device, printer, orspeaker). Such a system may also include one or more storage devices,such as disk drives, optical storage devices, and solid-state storagedevices such as random access memory (“RAM”) or read-only memory(“ROM”), as well as removable media devices, memory cards, flash cards,etc.

Such devices also can include a computer-readable storage media reader,a communications device (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless orwired), an infrared communication device, etc.), and working memory asdescribed above. The computer-readable storage media reader can beconnected with, or configured to receive, a computer-readable storagemedium, representing remote, local, fixed, and/or removable storagedevices as well as storage media for temporarily and/or more permanentlycontaining, storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer-readableinformation. The system and various devices also typically will includea number of software applications, modules, services, or other elementslocated within at least one working memory device, including anoperating system and application programs, such as a client applicationor Web browser. It should be appreciated that alternate embodiments mayhave numerous variations from that described above. For example,customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements mightbe implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, suchas applets), or both. Further, connection to other computing devicessuch as network input/output devices may be employed.

Storage media and computer readable media for containing code, orportions of code, can include any appropriate media known or used in theart, including storage media and communication media, such as but notlimited to volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable mediaimplemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmissionof information such as computer readable instructions, data structures,program modules, or other data, including RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memoryor other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) orother optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which canbe used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by asystem device. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, aperson of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate other ways and/ormethods to implement the various embodiments.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that various modifications and changes may be made thereuntowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method, comprising:receiving a request to provision a virtual machine on at least onecomputing device of a plurality of computing devices in communicationvia a network in a multi-tenant computing environment, the requestcomprising cryptographic information corresponding to configuration forone or more hardware components of one of the plurality of computingdevices; comparing the cryptographic information with cryptographicmeasurements associated with at least a portion of the plurality ofcomputing devices to determine matching cryptographic measurements, thematching cryptographic measurements associated with a computing deviceof the plurality of computing devices; provisioning the requestedvirtual machine on the computing device; and providing access to therequested virtual machine via the network.
 2. The computer implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the request is one of: a part of a virtualmachine launch request or a part of a pre-defined task.
 3. The computerimplemented method of claim 1, wherein the cryptographic information andthe cryptographic measurements are hash values generated by secure hashalgorithms.
 4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein thecryptographic measurements are hash values assigned to the one or morehardware components.
 5. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein the configuration corresponds to previously approved hardwareconfigurations.
 6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein atrusted third party provides a list of the cryptographic measurementscorresponding to approved hardware for requesters of the virtualmachine, and wherein hardware in the computing device corresponds to atleast one of the cryptographic measurements from the provided list. 7.The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:providing results of the comparing of the cryptographic information withthe cryptographic measurements from available computing devices, theresults including any matches between the cryptographic information withthe cryptographic measurements.
 8. A computing system, comprising: atleast one processor; and memory including instructions that, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the computing system to: receive arequest to provision a virtual machine on at least one computing deviceof a plurality of computing devices in communication via a network in amulti-tenant computing environment, the request comprising cryptographicinformation corresponding to configuration for one or more hardwarecomponents of one of the plurality of computing devices; compare thecryptographic information with cryptographic measurements associatedwith at least a portion of the plurality of computing devices todetermine matching cryptographic measurements, the matchingcryptographic measurements associated with a computing device of theplurality of computing devices; provision the requested virtual machineon the computing device; and provide access to the requested virtualmachine via the network.
 9. The computing system of claim 8, wherein thememory further comprises instructions executed by the at least oneprocessor to cause the computing system to: provide the request as oneof: a part of a virtual machine launch request or a part of apre-defined task.
 10. The computing system of claim 8, wherein thememory further comprises instructions executed by the at least oneprocessor to cause the computing system to generate the cryptographicinformation and the cryptographic measurements as hash values fromsecure hash algorithms.
 11. The computing system of claim 8, wherein thecryptographic measurements are hash values assigned to the one or morehardware components.
 12. The computing system of claim 8, wherein theconfiguration corresponds to previously approved hardwareconfigurations.
 13. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the memoryfurther comprises instructions executed by the at least one processor tocause the computing system to: provide a list of the cryptographicmeasurements from a trusted third party, the cryptographic measurementscorresponding to approved hardware for requesters of the virtualmachine, and wherein hardware in the computing device corresponds to atleast one of the cryptographic measurements from the provided list . 14.The computing system of claim 8, wherein the memory further comprisesinstructions executed by the at least one processor to cause thecomputing system to: provide results in response to comparing thecryptographic information with the cryptographic measurements fromavailable computing devices, the results including any matches betweenthe cryptographic information with the cryptographic measurements.
 15. Anon-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or moresequences of instructions, when executed by one or more processors causea computing system to: receive a request to provision a virtual machineon at least one computing device of a plurality of computing devices incommunication via a network in a multi-tenant computing environment, therequest comprising cryptographic information corresponding toconfiguration for one or more hardware components of one of theplurality of computing devices; compare the cryptographic informationwith cryptographic measurements associated with at least a portion ofthe plurality of computing devices to determine matching cryptographicmeasurements, the matching cryptographic measurements associated with acomputing device of the plurality of computing devices; provision therequested virtual machine on the computing device; and provide access tothe requested virtual machine via the network.
 16. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the request as oneof: a part of a virtual machine launch request or a part of apre-defined task.
 17. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedium of claim 15, wherein the cryptographic information and thecryptographic measurements are hash values generated by secure hashalgorithms.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium ofclaim 15, wherein the cryptographic measurements are hash valuesassigned to the one or more hardware components.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the configurationcorresponds to previously approved hardware configurations.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein theone or more sequences of instructions, when executed by the one or moreprocessors cause the computing system to: provide a list of thecryptographic measurements from a trusted third party, the cryptographicmeasurements corresponding to approved hardware for requesters of thevirtual machine, and wherein hardware in the computing devicecorresponds to at least one of the cryptographic measurements from theprovided list.